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By the end, some of Sharron Angle's former staffers described an operation at odds with itself.
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Several Republican operatives working on the Angle race said that Campbell operated as the ring leader for local tea party activists, especially volunteers in the Las Vegas field office — a group of people who were collectively viewed by the campaign professionals as so incompetent that some on Angle’s staff even referred to them as the “Island of Misfit Toys.”

Campbell’s authority derived from his close relationship with Angle, who aides described as a maternal figure in the campaign and intensely loyal to her supporters. Angle and Campbell shared similar ideological views and a bond that proved almost unbreakable.

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Campbell wasn’t exactly a political neophyte: A former state legislator in Oklahoma, he also spent several years serving as a district director for former Sen. Jim Talent in his hometown of Springfield, Mo. In the late 1990s, Campbell moved to Nevada and worked at a Reno-based conservative think tank, The Nevada Policy Research Institute, where he met Angle.

With more than a decade of history with the candidate, Campbell had Angle’s trust: When he was not at home in Springfield — which is where he lived for much of the campaign — he would stay in Angle's home, making it difficult for any of the other aides to get access to the candidate without him present. She almost always backed up his decisions and instructions to staffers.

“Terry was a major source of the problem but not the only one. He was the one Sharron listened to,” said one Republican with close knowledge of the situation.

Over the course of the campaign, there were several pleas from outside organizations for Angle to drop Campbell. One Nevada-based GOP aide recalled overhearing a call from a top donor for the Club for Growth — a group that backed Angle both in her unsuccessful primary bid for Congress in 2006 and in the Senate race — asking her to fire Campbell, but she refused.

Operatives recall that Campbell initially resisted hiring senior staff after the primary, including a communications director, and insisted on using his own Nevada-based media buyer — arguments that eventually prevented the campaign from going on the air for several weeks following her upset primary win.

And not long after that primary election victory, Campbell opted to have elective knee surgery — going off the grid for several weeks except to speak with Angle in the mornings. During that time, national operatives made moves to hire a fundraiser, press secretary and deputy campaign manager, as well as bring in consultants and make preparations to go on the airwaves.

That sluggish start to the fall campaign — and the delay in going on the air — proved devastating. Reid pummeled Angle on television, painting her as an out-of-touch extremist — attacks that went unanswered for weeks until the Republican aired her first television advertisement of the general election more than a month after winning the nomination.

I suppose this all comes about because of the candidate's ineptness before that of the amateurish campaign manager. Some people have no business running for public office and Sharron Angle is one of them. Hopefully she will just stay home now. We had a legitimate opportunity to put Harry Reid in retirement and the inept candidate who insisted God was on her side was too stupid to figure out that He wasn't. Anyone who insists God IS in fact at the helm of their campaign ought to just take a nap and maybe it will all be over when they wake up. As in business, invoking God's name should be enough to tell you to not only grab your wallet but vote for someone else. If God was on the person's side they wouldn't need to tell anyone because it wouldn't matter.

Sorry, not buying it. We are to believe that this ding bat lost because of her handlers? Angle lost for the same reason Palin will never be elected to national office. SHE IS AN IDIOT! And it makes perfect sense that this ding dong surrounded herself with other idiots. Move along, there is no story here.

murphy, if you don't think seiu and others are capable of rigging votes, especially in the gambling capital of the world, you need to rethink the way people operate. to bad what happens in las vegas doesn't really stay there. the people of nevada owe an apology to america for sending reid back to d.c. mickey mouse would have been better.

Sharron Angle's run and hide strategy did not work. She ran now it's time to hide; Argentina is a haven for the deposed. She promised to answer questions when she become a senator. The world will never know.

Yeah, and REID APPOINTING SEIU TO MAINTAIN THE VOTING MACHINES and HIS SON TO OVERSEE VOTER FRAUD DIDN'T HELP EITHER.

Reid didn't win this election - HE STOLE IT!!!!!

Does anyone beleive that Angle would have conceded if she thought this?

Does anyone beleive that the GOP wouldn't spend money to hire lawyers if this was true?

....yes, exactly, that's because this election was not stolen. Some of you extreme types keep screaming that middle America - moderate, independent, bipartisan America - is people like Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle, and, when they fail miserably (See O'Donnell, Christine) its not their fault...oh no...its the media's fault. All those things they said with a straight face and in context...they were "misinterpreted by the Lame Stream Media."

Its the equivilent of a bully in middle school. They can't argue with you; they can't admit they are a little crazy. So, they throw around an ad hominem attack to make them feel better about themselves.

If you think that the modern day "Know-Nothingism" that is at the root of this angry Conservative base is some sort of long term stable strategy for majority governance than I really hope you really turn up the crazy come January. I can't wait for Allen West to show up with his "The Tree of Liberty Must Be Watered with the Blood of TyrantObamaos From Time to Time" t-shirt at the State of the Union next year.